Bassam Tibi, born 1944 in Damascus, is a political scientist of Syrian origin with German citizenship known for his analysis of international relations concerning Islamic countries and civilisation. Being a Muslim himself, he is considered to have a more fair and unbiased view of Islam. He studied in Frankfurt am Main and habilitated in Hamburg, Germany. Since 1973 he teaches international politics at Göttingen University. In 1982 he was Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, and is currently an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. He has done research in Asian and African countries. He publishes in English, German and Arabic. (See more on wikipedia).

In 2003 he received the annual prize of the Swiss Foundation for European Awareness. (Read the whole long article on wwwuser.gwdg.de).

The German language term Leitkultur is a politically controversial concept, first introduced in 1998 by the German orientalist Bassam Tibi. It can be translated as ‘guiding culture’ or ‘leading culture’, less literally as ‘core culture’ or ‘basic culture’. Tibi himself saw it as a form of multiculturalism, but from 2000, the term figured prominently in the national political debate in Germany about national identity and immigration. The term then became associated with a monocultural vision of German society, with ideas of western cultural superiority, and with policies of compulsory cultural assimilation. Bassam Tibi first suggested a ‘Leitkultur’ in his 1998 book ‘Europa ohne Identität’ (’Europe without identity’). He defined it in terms of what are commonly called western values, and spoke of a European rather than a German ‘Leitkultur’. “The values needed for a core culture are those of modernity: democracy, secularism, the Enlightenment, human rights and civil society.” (B. Tibi, Europa ohne Identität, p. 154). These core values are similar to those of the ‘liberal-democratic basic order’ (Freiheitlich-demokratischen Grundordnung) which is considered the foundational value of the post-war Federal Republic of Germany, and the unified German state after 1990. Tibi advocated a cultural pluralism based on a value consensus, rather than monoculturalism. However, he also opposed a value-blind multiculturalism, and the development of ‘parallel societies’ where immigrant minorities live and work, isolated from the western society around them. Tibi advocated a structured immigration policy, and opposed illegal immigration into Germany. (Read all the rest on this english wikipedia).

“Islam and the Cultural Accommodation of Social Change.” Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990.

“Conflict and War in the Middle East, 1967-91 : Regional Dynamic and the Superpowers.” Translated by Clare Krojzl. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993.

“Arab Nationalism : Between Islam and the Nation-State.” 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.

“The Challenge of Fundamentalism : Political Islam and the New World Disorder.” Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998; updated edition 2002. ISBN 0-520-23690-4 Author’s abstract: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/6525/6525.abs.html.

“Islam between Culture and Politics. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York Cambridge, Mass: Palgrave, in association with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Harvard University, 2001.

“The Simultaneity of the Unsimultaneous – Old Tribes and Imposed Nation-States in the Modern Middle East.” In Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, ed. Philip S. Khoury and Joseph Kostiner, 127-152. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.